Ash tray with cigarette snuffer



July 7, 1'970 G. N. BOLINGER ASH TRAY WITH CIGARETTE SNUFFER Filed July l0. 1968 /A/ VEN me Gea/ge A/oe/o//hger BY ATTO/mer United States Patent O1 lice 3,519,001 Patented July 7 1970 3,519,001 ASH TRAY WITH CIGARETTE SNUFFER George Noel Bolinger, Shelbyville, Ill., assigner to Sta- Rite Ginnie Lou, Inc., Shelbyville, Ill., a corporation of Delaware Filed July 10, 1968, Ser. No. 743,770 Int. Cl. A2413 19/14 U.S. Cl. 131-235 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A plate-like member is provided with a surrounding iange or Wall to form an ash receiver, and one or more tubes project snugly through openings in the plate-like member and extend thereabove. These tubes are slightly larger than a cigarette, but when a cigarette butt is inserted in one of the tubes with the lighted end inserted in the bottom of the tube, lack of oxygen quick ly snuffs out the cigarette. The cigarette butts very readily may be dumped, together with ashes on the plate-like member by inverting the device. The projection of the tubes above the plate-like member minimizes the amount of ashes which will fall thereinto when the loose ashes are deposited on the plate-like member.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to the field of ash trays and provides not only a receptacle for ashes, but means for snuiiing out cigarettes, the continued burning of which in an ash tray is annoying to persons nearby. Moreover, the continued burning of the cigarette in an ash tray from the standpoint of possibly starting a fire is objectionable.

It is old in the prior art to provide cigarette snuters. Some of these devices have tapered openings in which the cigarette snugly ts and which are not of substantial depth. It is also old to provide tubes in which cigarettes may be inserted to extinguish them because of the lack of oxygen. All of these devices are not combined with an ash tray to form a wall for minimizing the falling of loose ashes into the tubes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention comprises a plate which may be flat or dished, and surrounded by an upstanding wall or flange which may be integral with the plate or form part of an ornamental receptacle in the upper end of which the plate is arranged. At a point spaced beneath said plate is arranged a second plate which may form the bottom of the device, or a false bottom in the receptacle, containing the parts of the device. Snugly iitting against the bottom plate is preferably a plurality of vertical tubes, the upper ends of which project snugly through openings in the upper plate. The tubes project upwardly beyond the upper plate and each thereby forms a wall around the opening in the tube so that when ashes are knocked from a cigarette onto the top plate, the falling of cigarette ashes into the tubes is minimized.

The tubes may be variably Xed in position relative to the upper and lower plates. For example, the lower ends of the tubes may be welded or otherwise secured to the bottom plate and may have a driving tit with the openings in the upper plate through which they project. Where the upper and lower plates are surrounded by a decorative receptacle, the tubes may be secured or having driving iits with the openings in the upper plate and may merely rest snugly on the bottom plate. Moreover, means other than positive securing ymeans may be employed for fixing the lower ends of the tubes relative to the bottom plate. For example, a disc having a plurality of notches in its periphery may be pushed downwardly between circumferentially arranged tubes seating on a bottom plate having a surrounding ange, the disc being exed downwardly and riveted to the bottom plate. The notches in the disc will it snugly against the tubes and hold the latter in rm engagement with the flange around the bottom plate. Alternatively, the tubes may be held against the flange of the bottom plate by a split substantially annular serpentine leaf spring having radially outwardly opening recesses, each of which engages a tube to hold the latter against the flange of the bottom plate when the spring is released.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. l is a plan view of one form of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view on line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a similar view of a modiiied form of the invention having top and bottom plates;

FIG. 4 is a horizontal sectional view of another moditication taken between the top and bottom plates of the device;

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view on line 5 5 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a plan view of the tube-clamping disc of FIGS. 4 and 5;

FIG. 7 is a plan view of a substantially circular serpentine split spring ring for holding the lower ends of the tubes in position; and

FIG. 8 is a section similar to FIG. 4 showing the spring of FIG. 7 in position in another modilication.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the numeral 10 designates a preferably metal receptacle havng a bottom 12 and a side wall 14, the upper end portion 16 of which preferably flares outwardly as in FIG. 2, thus forming an ornamental receptacle.

Spaced from the bottom thereof, the receptacle 10 is provided with an annular shoulder 18 on which seats a bottom plate 20 which may or may not be welded or otherwise secured to the side wall 14 of the receptacle. Substantially spaced above the lower plate 20 is an upper plate 22 snugly fitting within the side wall 14 and arranged below the top of the receptacle 10 so that the -upper side wall portion 16 of th-e receptacle forms a wall or tiange combining with the upper plate 22 to form -an ash receiver.

A plurality of tubes 24 have their lower ends resting snugly upon or secured to the lower plate 20. These tubes project snugly through openings 25 in the upper plate 22 and have their upper ends extending above the plate 22 to minimize the iiow of loose ashes from the receptacle into the tubes 24.

The upper ends of these tubes thus form wall portions of the ash receiver.

In the form of the invention shown in FIG. 3, no surrounding receptacle is employed, and the upper plate 26 is provided with a preferably integral upstanding flared liange 28 to form with the plate 26 an ash receiver of the type previously described. In this case, a lower plate 30 is employed which forms the bottom of the device as a whole and this plate may or may not be provided with an upturned flange 32. This form of the device is also provided with preferably circularly arranged vertical tubes 34, the bottoms of which will be welded or otherwise secured to the bottom plate 301. Each of these tubes projects upwardly snugly through an opening 36 in the top plate 26, and the upper ends of the tubes project above 3 the plate 26 for the same purpose as in FIG. 2, namely, to minimize the falling of loose ashes into the tubes.

Another modication of the invention is shown in FIGS. 4, and 6 wherein a bottom plate 38 is employed, similar to the plate 30 in FIG. 3, and provided with an upstanding annular flange 40. The vertical tubes 42 in this case have their lower ends engaging the bottom plate 38 and also engaging the inner face of the flange 40. To properly position the tubes 42, a disc 44 is semi-circularly notched at peripherally spaced points as at 46 to tit against the tubes 42, as shown in FIG. 5. The distance between the inner limits of any tube notches 46 diametrically of the plate 44 is slightly greater than the corresponding distance between diametrically opposite tubes 42. When the plate 44 is pushed downwardly to the position shown in FIG. 5, the plate 44 will tlex and provide a constant force urging the tubes radially outwardly relative to the plate 38 to maintain engagement of the tubes with the ange 40. The plate 44 is preferably riveted as at 48 to the bottom plate 38.

The device is provided at a point spaced above the plate 38 with a horizontal upper plate 56 having a preferably integral annular flange 58 forming with the plate 56 an ash receiver as in the previously described forms of the invention. Here again vertical tubes 42 project snugly through openings 60 in the upper plate 56. In the forms of the invention shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the plate 56 need not be welded or otherwise secured to all of the tubes but only t0 a sufficient number of tubes to maintain the horizontal positioning of the upper plate. It is not necessary that al1 of the tubes have their upper ends terminate in a single plane. For example, in FIG. 5, alternate tubes 42 project upwardly above the remaining tubes as at 62 to provide an interesting decorative effect. If desired, all of the tubes may be of different lengths to project different distances above the upper plate, it being understood that the shortest tube will have its upper end projecting above the upper plate to limit the ow of ashes into such tube.

In FIGS. 7 and 8, a further modification of the bottom of the device is shown wherein a bottom plate 64 is provided with an annular upstanding flange 66 to correspond to the showing of the bottom plate in FIG. 5. Vertical tubes 68 are also used in this construction and project through an upper plate (not shown) which may correspond to the upper plates in other forms of the invention illustrated. These tubes 68 may be maintained in firm engagement with the ange 66 by a spring indicated as a whole by the numeral 70 and shown released in FIG. 7. This spring is of generally circular split form having ends 72, and the spring is formed serpentine to provide outwardly facing generally semi-circular recesses 74 connected by inwardly opening intervening spring portions 76. When the spring 70 is in position as in FIG. 8, it will be radially and circumferentially contracted and all portions thereof' will exert a radially outward force so that each recess portion 74 of the spring will hold its associated tube in rm engagement with the flange 66.

OPERATION In the form of the invention shown in FIG. 3, the lower ends of the tubes necessarily must be welded or otherwise secured to the lower plate 30. In the other forms of the invention, such securing is not necessary since the tubes will be held in position by the upper plate or by the spring means shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. The tubes are preferably circularly arranged as shown, and any number of tubes may be employed with the upper ends projecting above the upper plate. Ashes knocked from the cigarette will be deposited on the upper plate in each case and little or none of the loose ashes will fall into the tubes although a reasonable accumulation of ashes in the bottoms of the tubes will not affect the operation of the device.

When a smoker has nished with a cigarette, the re end of the cigarette is inserted into one of the tubes. These tubes will be slightly larger than the cigarette for a reason to be referred to, but are sullciently small to substantially completely shut off the supply of oxygen to the burning end of the cigarette so that the latter will almost immediately be snuffed out. Thus, it is not necessary to crush the fire end of a cigarette to extinguish it and a quick snung of the cigarette eliminates disagreeable odors from cigarettes which are left burning on an ash tray. The use of tubes of slightly larger diameter than the cigarettes permits the easy dumping of the ash tray in a suitable receptacle, the cigarette butts sliding freely from the tubes to be dumped with ashes deposited on the upper plate.

What is claimed is:

1. An ash tray comprising a plate having a surrounding tiange projecting thereabove and combining therewith to form an ash receiver, and a substantially vertical cigarette snuing tube open at the top and closed at the bottom said plate having an opening through which said tube projects downwardly, said opening snugly tting said tube, said plate except for said opening being imperforate, said tube terminating above said plate to minimize the falling of ashes into said tube.

2. A device according to claim 1 wherein the bottom closure for said tube comprises a lower plate spaced from said first-named plate and snugly tting against the bottom of said tube.

3. A device according to claim 1 wherein a plurality of said tubes are employed, said plate having an opening snugly surrounding each of said tubes, the bottom closure for the lower ends of said tubes comprising a lower plate spaced from said upper plate and having an upstanding annular flange, said tubes having their lower ends snugly engaging said lower plate and being circularly arranged in engagement with said flange of said lower plate.

4. A device according to claim 3 provided with means between said tubes engaging all of said tubes to maintain said tubes in engagement with said flange of said bottom plate.

5. A device according to claim 4 wherein said means for holding said tubes in engagement with said llange of said bottom plate comprises a disc having vertical notches fitting the respective tubes and llexed upwardly toward its periphery to engage said tubes, the center of said disc being xed to said bottom plate.

6. A device according to claim 4 wherein said means for holding said tubes in engagement with said flange of said lower plate comprises a split generally circular spring of peripherally serpentine form having outwardly opening recesses each engaging one of said tubes to hold it in engagement with said ange of said lower plate.

7. A device according to claim 3 wherein the device is provided with a surrounding receptacle the upper edge portion of which forms said surrounding flange of said plate, said receptacle having an annular shoulder spaced substantially below said rst-named plate and on which said second-named plate is seated.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS D. 152,656 2/1949 Schwisow.

1,628,114 5/1927 Caldwell 131-235 1,874,319 8/1932 Lill 131--235 1,904,084 4/1933 Riley 131-235 2,069,400 2/1937 Berg 131-235 2,227,354 12/ 1940 Kushiner 131-235 2,495,496 1/1950 Agee 131-235 2,727,521 12/ 1955 Wilson 131-256 2,756,895 7/1956 Enders 131-235 X FOREIGN PATENTS 731,063 5/1932 France.

JOSEPH S. REICH, Primary Examiner 

